The Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research facility on the University of Maryland campus cut energy use
an average of 30 percent by optimizing its chiller plant. Image: Courtesy of the University of Maryland
Bristol-Myers Squibb’s ground-up campus in Lawrence Township, N.J. Image: (c) Connie Zhou,
courtesy of Gensler

James Johnson,
University of Maryland IBBR
Jonathan Kosobucki, Optimum Energy

With high-energy-use equipment, an HVAC system that must run flawlessly day and night
and buildings that never go dark, the
Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology
Research (IBBR) was one of the biggest
energy hogs on the University of
Maryland campus as well as one of the
most difficult to make more energy
efficient.

IBBR connects scientists from the university, the National Institute of Standards and
Technology and industry to find solutions
to major scientific and medical challenges.
With one of the nation’s largest collections of

Brenda Nyce-Taylor, IIDA, LEED AP ID+C
Gensler

Pharmaceutical companies may be in the business of developing drugs, but they’ve innovated something else over the last
decade as well: workplaces designed to enhance
collaboration and speed decision-making.
Their open environments became a tool to
support any number of drivers (other than the
obvious reining in of footprint) including the
process of bringing products to market.

And now, as architects and designers who
work in this sector, we seem to be at another
pivotal moment with our life sciences clients.
We’re seeing a growing number of them go
back at it, seeking to define Fast Workplace 2.0.
They’re integrating lots of technologies (some
of it leading edge stuff; more of it “standard” IT
used more abundantly and more creatively) into
their open campuses to make their bricks and
mortar even more nimble, even more connected,
and all in support of better communication and
faster decision-making.

continued on page 4

Pharma companies accelerate the “fast workplace”

ENERGY CONSUMPTION HAS REMAINED FLAT EVEN AS USER OCCUPANCY HAS DOUBLED.